AI in occupational therapy: what it can do for your assessments and recommendations

In occupational therapy, AI is mostly useful for writing. Notes after a visit, assessments, recommendations, disability reports. It can save time, as long as you know what it does well and what it cannot do.

What AI can do for you

Notes after a visit

You dictate into your phone what you observed and the measurements taken, and the tool turns it into a clean note. During the session, it can also transcribe what is said. The note is added to the patient's record.

The assessment

From your observations and evaluations, AI can write a structured first draft of the assessment. You review it, check every result and adjust. See our article on the assessment report.

Recommendations and disability reports

AI can format your home adaptation recommendations or the report that goes with a disability or housing grant application. You choose the aids and adaptations, it writes them up. See our articles on recommendations and MaPrimeAdapt'.

Following progress over time

When every visit sits in the same record, it becomes easy to see what has changed in the person's independence.

What about ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is useful for anything that contains no patient data. A general advice sheet on fall prevention, a description of your practice, an email to a partner about a general question.

Patient data, however, does not belong there. The consumer version is not certified to host health data. According to OpenAI's help centre, content from personal accounts may be used to train models unless you turn off the « Improve the model for everyone » setting. And no data processing agreement protects you.

Removing the name is not enough. Age, town, household or type of housing often make someone recognisable. The details are in our article on ChatGPT and patient data, which applies to occupational therapists too.

Telling patients

Before using a note-taking tool, inform the person, and their carer if present. Explain simply how it works and ask whether they are comfortable with it. See our article on patient consent.

You remain responsible

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) and the data protection authority (CNIL) stress this point in their February 2026 working document on AI in care. The professional checks what the tool produces and compares it with their own clinical reasoning. Responsibility remains theirs.

Where to start

1. Pick one use, the one that costs you the most time. For many occupational therapists, that is assessments and recommendations.
2. Choose a tool designed for health care, with certified hosting and a clear contract. Our article on choosing software sets out the criteria.
3. Inform your patients before you start.
4. Review everything the tool produces, especially at the beginning.

How Delta works

Delta is an AI assistant designed with occupational therapists. During the session or home visit, Delta transcribes what is said. You can also dictate your observations and measurements right after. Delta then writes the report, taking your specialty into account, and adds it to the patient's record. You find the whole history when it is time to write an assessment or a disability report. Delta also writes your assessment reports.

Data stays in Europe, on infrastructure certified for health data (HDS), and AI processing runs on servers located in France. The patient's name and any information that could identify them are pseudonymised before reaching the AI, no audio file is kept, and the data is never used to train models. Delta works on computer, tablet and phone. More details on the Delta for occupational therapists page.